Volume 24, Number 17
ON THE COVER:
news
Thousands of Iraq War veterans will come home to
face serious psychological problems and a system
unready to help them
BY DAN FROSCH
Jury finds that agency rigged a 2001 promotional
exam to favor good ol' boys
BY JORDAN SMITH
Iowa drug czar says killer (!) marijuana is wreaking
havoc
BY JORDAN SMITH
TABC, DPS, and APD all looking at circumstances of
Jacobsons' fatal accident.
BY JORDAN SMITH
But can slick, GOP-friendly HillCo defend the public
interest?
BY AMY SMITH
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
BY MIKE CLARK-MADISON
The sacrifices of U.S. soldiers represent only an
installment on the payments due
BY MICHAEL KING
As concrete Christmas arrives, who's got the last
laugh now?
BY MIKE CLARK-MADISON
Sunset proposal to do away with agency gets
optimistic response on all sides
BY AMY SMITH
Jim spreads some holiday cheer
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
food
Eat, Memory
The Food staff on their fondness for holidays past:
epiphanies, friendship, near-disaster, disaster, and
always a full plate
The Drafthouse draws a big-name chef; plus, V.B.W.
is giving you a big gift basket of foodie news for
Christmas!
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
music
Dixiecrat Jesse Dayton ain't banging his head against
a wall
BY CHRISTOPHER GRAY
DVDnds
Gift guide
Dreck the Halls
Gift guide
Going Braless in city of Small Stars and smashed
guitars
BY CHRISTOPHER GRAY
screens
Jean-Pierre on 'A Very Long Engagement'
BY MARC SAVLOV
Thirty years later, Jeff Lieberman is still walking on
'Blue Sunshine'
BY MARC SAVLOV
Every Word Is True: Austin lands a Killer production;
plus, Joe Conway 'Rocks,' Rodriguez wraps, and
more
BY JOE O'CONNELL
Navigating the 'multicultural mess' of the holidays on
the tube takes a sense of humor and taking ourselves
less seriously; plus Paul Stekler gets a big nod from
the Writers Guild of America
BY BELINDA ACOSTA
Film Reviews
The plodding stage musical finally comes to the big screen, its relentlessly bombastic score intact with a vengeance.
Scorsese's best film in years is a work of bravura, classic Hollywood filmmaking.
Bill Cosby's animated kids get a live-action makeover.
Bill Murray won't get the elusive Oscar for this one – for all its visual majesty, The Life Aquatic is too slight – but the film is nevertheless a funny, bewildering, and giddy spectacle.
You can Fockerize Meet the Parents all you want, but this new movie is a lame sequel to the comic hit of 2000.
The director of Amélie reunites with that film's star, Audrey Tautou, for this World War One love story.
arts & culture
How the men of Naughty Austin's 'Pageant' get their
glam on
BY BARRY PINEO
Texans find a place with the art world elite in Art Basel
Miami Beach
BY JACQUELINE MAY
The new Whole Foods will be getting some tasty new
art, the Blanton just needs another $12 million, and
where in the world is the Cultural Arts office
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Arts Reviews
In A Christmas Carol Roasting on an Open Fire, Rob
Nash adds a clever curve to the holiday tale, matching
Hollywood stars with Dickens' familiar characters
This year's 'Rockin' Christmas Party' is flashy fun
with an onslaught of seasonal classics and popular
rock songs that aim to tickle those humbugs away
"Twister: Moving Through Color, 1965-1976" looks at
artists of that era who took the road less traveled,
continuing to investigate painting with spatial illusions
and other perceptual tricks
columns
Acting as if God partakes in partisan or national
politics is a display of blasphemy, not faith
BY LOUIS BLACK
Our readers talk back.
Despite the change in inhabitants, the buildings,
people, and mood of the old immigrant neighborhoods
haven't changed. The streets still whisper the same
cautionary advice: Survive and get out.
BY MICHAEL VENTURA
Stephen shaves his head and goes Southern ... or at
least South Austin. And this time, it's not even SoCo!!!
BY STEPHEN MACMILLAN MOSER
Brazos Bend State Park and Palmetto State Park are
unique among the hundreds of wildlife refuges in
Texas
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
POZ launching new personal ads
BY SANDY BARTLETT
Taking the bark off banana trees with slippers and four
tons of potatoes
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
What's behind the rumor that there are again threats to
the availability of food supplements?
BY JAMES HEFFLEY, PH.D.
Basketbrawl self-defense in Texas
BY LUKE ELLIS
Continental Club, Saturday, December 25, 2004
BY THE LUV DOC
Letters to the editor, published daily
sports
The ghosts of Pele and El Rey
BY NICK BARBARO